It can be fun to see context for how things are playing out in the current era when held up in contrast with how things were years ago.

Here is a post I made on the Common Board in 2009, before I began my State of the Donut tradition, but with similar interests. What I like about this post, viewed with the advantage of hindsight, is how many of the things that were hinted at (and clearly only partially conceived) did indeed come to pass. It is also interesting to assess the tone of the note, which came at a very troubled time in the community, following numerous difficult personnel issues both of players and wizards - and a still very green Keeper.

Code:

WARNING!! This post is long - but perhaps worth your time even so. If you don't feel like reading it, no one will blame you, but it might answer a lot of your questions or address your many frustrations by the end. (here's hoping!)

Genessissians ...

I've heard a lot from people lately how the communication lines seemto be down between the admin and the players. I think this is probablytrue, and has lead to some not-so-fun results. Nature, hating a vacuumas it does, has turned many of you to outlets such as the rumor mill,the Eden Forum, and your own speculation as to what the winds of changeare blowing in, and what interests are driving the changes.

Well ... my bad. I've not been my old self in terms of putting up mysemi-regular posts on progress, philosphy, energy, etc. The specificreasons for my lack of proactive posting are numerous, but allessentially boil down to me running into a few walls with my ownhuman limits. Fortunately, Armaggeddon caught me drunk and weepingin the Wizard Lounge and hustled me into a recovery program ... I'mfeeling MUCH better now.

But seriously ...

I think a bit of frank big-picture talk is called for. So many of youhave been discouraged, unhappy, and downright outraged at the stateof affairs with regard to the Balance work that has been ongoing nowfor the last year or so. Things I often hear:

- Guild X is crazy powerful! Are you nuts? You call this Balance?

- Why don't you stop focusing on MY guild and start working on keeping all your promises to the game?

- How can you expect me to want to keep playing when all you and your wizards seem to want to do is nerf my guild into oblivion?

- I just got killed in 30 seconds by guild X. You've got 30 minutes to talk me out of quitting this lame-ass game!

- Got a minute?

The last one I hear about 10 times a day, which often means I have togive the answer (quite honestly) that I do not. Please realize thisisn't because your concerns aren't important to me - it is more thatsaying "yes" to that question ten times a day means that nothing elsegets done - this is why many of you get the response "mail me, please"which I take very seriously, and work hard to keep on top of.

But back to the Balance stuff ...

Working on Balance isn't very fun. In fact, it is often the oppositeof fun. It isn't fun for the players who are forced to play in aconstantly shifting world where the realities they grow accustomed tochange month to month. It isn't fun for guilds who grow used to acertain level of power and then, when adjusted into the norm, feelthey have lost everything. It isn't fun for guilds who feel likethings are happening to everyone but them, and that their guild istherefore unimportant to the wizards. It isn't fun for people whofeel like one guild is way too powerful, and that nothing is beingdone to make that fair.

Conversely, for us wizards, it is no fun to know that these feelingsare all real, and valid, and a big part of your decision to want tokeep playing. We get it! We really do!

All this being said, here is the deal -

Good balance is a must. The game has, over the 15 years and more ofdevelopment, been built on a foundation that has never had a wholisticand consistent approach to balance. This leaves us with a foundationthat is filled with cracks which we have tried to compensate for withall sorts of struts, props, crutches, and workarounds over the yearsas the game has gotten bigger and bigger (in terms of content.)

Given the goals that the Admin have for future growth, the way forwardis to really start over in a lot of ways. As we've worked on Balance,we've been ourselves discovering what we want it to look like, andtrying to build it from the ground level up, rather than from thetop level (existing, problematic stuff) down. This isn't always aneasy and obvious path, and it requires some trial and error. The firstguilds to be recoded were trial ... and they have involved somesignificant (but instructive) error. To the members of these guilds,specifically the Vampyre guild, I offer a very real and heartfeltapology. It has not been a good process for the players.

The reason for this, partially, is that we have elected for a so-called"iterative" process - one in which we release new aspects of Balance insmall semi-frequent chunks, rather than trying to build the entiregame without any release of new content and opening all at once about3 years from now. The iterative process, I feel, is the best way togo in that it allows us to float the small changes, see if they work,and then rework them if needed. If we didn't do that, the 3 year awaymodel might mean we do all this work only to discover that NOTHING isright when we finally open.

An iterative reworking of Balance sucks for the players. There is justno getting around this. It sucks because you are all, essentially,the test-subjects for the on-going process. Again - a VERY imperfectsystem. You didn't sign up to be test subjects, but it is the bestwe can do (testing things in our labs we do as much as possible, butas you all know, it really doesn't equal what happens on in the realgame.) But here we are ... the dragon is in flight, and we're allriding on its back. The dragon is sick, and isn't flying well ...We can't land the dragon and work on her, so we have to do it duringthe flight. Some people don't like the way she rides during thisprocess, and jump off. Not great, but so be it. Hopefully they'llcome back once we're flying at top form.

The big apology goes out to those of you who thrive on PvP. The PvEgame isn't really the thing that is affected by all of this. Thebalance of guilds mainly draws upon the PvP experiences that thegame offers.

- The Dragonarmy recode is essentially finished, and we are waiting for the final Balance Review.

- The Mercenary recode is very far along, and is hopefully something Gorboth will finish soon (!)

- The Neidar guild is mid-stream ... with Navarre having returned to activity, soon to be much farther along.

- The magic system continues to be redeveloped, with much opinion from the Balance Team, and wizards like Eowul and Lilith being taken very seriously.

- One of the big developments lately has been development of systems which run rigorous tests of guild performance. There are two separate entities developing these tests - one for the AoB team and one for the AoD team. Having two separately devised tests helps us get better data and improve (inform) our methods for testing. The tests have included performance of guilds vs. environment (PvE) and guilds vs. guilds (PvP). These tests will finally give us a meaningful ruler for the type of Balance we are after.

- Global changes have been implemented in an ongoing manner. These have often dealt with effects that exist in various forms in the game, but often draw on the same idea. We have implemented global standards on effects such as haste, stuns, scrys, and the ability to cast a spell while executing a special attack. The fact that these changes have been global means that no single guild has been the sole recipient of the change. However, those guilds that make more frequent use of certain of these effects sometimes perceive themselves to have been the sole recipients of the change in that the effects play a bigger role in their gaming life.

- A great deal of work has and continues to be done on the global restructure of Genesis ShipLines.

- A global crafting economy is being developed.

- Rare item mods are being developed, with the potential implementation of a (very expensive) imbuement system for New Sparkle's Magic Shoppe. (similar to Diablo II)

- A new website design has been begun by a talented member of the Genesis community - hopefully to be completed and implemented before long.

- Many more things I'm forgetting to mention.

I like to save the best for last. I'll be honest and let you all knowthat around late October and early November I myself took a break fromGenesis to clear my head a bit and get my energy back. It seems likeI wasn't the only one, as the numbers during that time were the worstthey have been since the Census was active. The good news is that sincethat time we have been on a steady climb back to health. Numbers havebeen on the rise, as you can see below. The chart displays the averagenumber of people logged on at any given hour of the day for each dayfrom our low point to the present. Keep in mind that these numbersshow only non-linkdead non-wizards. Our peak hours are between 50-55people online ... those peaks are leveled out against the valleysto create the averages:

In our Summer months, just after the opening of the AA and the Bloodguard,we saw the highest numbers we've had in recent years. The average hoveredin the 22-25 range for a total of about 4 weeks. We have not yet comeback to that level. But, we have since the new year been consistentlyabove 15, and for the past month been hovering around 18 or so, withfrequent hits at 19 or higher.

We are FAR better off than we were when the Census project began,and FAR FAR FAR better off than we were at our low ebb back in late-November when morale (even for your Keeper) was quite low.

Things are looking good for the future. Yes, we are in a rough patchwith Balance. Yes, we've got a ways to go before we are out of therough patch. But the promise of what lies in store is very greatindeed.

Many thanks to those of you who have helped by staying positive andgiving energy back to the developers. Thanks to those of you whohave offered much constructive criticism - you help steer our effortsand inform our choices! And, yes, thanks even to those of you whocan't seem to do much other than complain - your vocal efforts helpremind me how important it is to keep communication flowing so thatthe grapevine and rumour mill aren't the only things churning outinformation! :-)

Onward ... upward! (seriously)G.

As much as things change, many problems will always feel the same, I think. Even so, I feel very happy looking back on all of the progress that has been made since this post was written.

G.

Author:

Tarax the Terrible [ 29 Jun 2017 20:34 ]

Post subject:

Re: Echoes from an earlier period

Got a minute? Heheh

Lot of good work done since then =) and good results.Grats all round.

What was the crafting economy mentioned?Was that the plan for the rune smiths thing?